Monthly Archives: October 2014

Over on Coat of Many Colors, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to write about– not because the bible has a lot of “spooky” stories, it really does not, but because the ones it has are so deeply ingrained that you stop seeing them. This year, I looked at one of the bible’s true “ghost stories”: King Saul and the ghost of the Prophet Samuel. There is also a witch thrown in there for good measure.

In the beginning, there was Wizardry. No, not the very beginning because someone had to come around and invent the Apple ][ first, but when it comes to home computer role-playing games, it is difficult to get older than the first Wizardry game. Richard Garriott had not written Akalabeth, the precursor to Ultima. Might and Magic and The Bard’s Tale were both half a decade in the future. No, if you wanted to find a multi-character dungeon crawl, you were stuck with Wizardry.

The amazing thing is, it has aged pretty well. It’s damned difficult, but at this point not impossible. I have played through the first level (of ten, I believe); read on for my thoughts so far.

Over on Coat of Many Colors, I have just posted Part 3 of my incredibly delayed look at the Jewish holiday of Purim: the End of Haman. (You might also be interested in parts one or two.) It is as close at the Bible gets to commenting on government bureaucracy gone crazy as the King of Persia is unable to countermand his own order to kill all the Jews and instead must order the Jewish citizens to fight back. A great story, no matter what time of year it is.

You all realize, of course, we cannot succeed against the Daleks alone? – The Doctor

After an action-packed outing last time, Doctor Who switches into a different gear for “The Expedition.” This episode does a great job closing up plot threads and setting the table for the conclusion of this serial. At times, that makes this episode more like “The Exposition” than an “Expedition”, but it is fine. These classic episodes of Doctor Who do like to breathe, but I am not finding the pacing to be too far off at all. Not “modern” Doctor Who, of course– but it does not need to be.

We have some fantastic interaction between the main cast as they debate how far they should go to get home, some sensible strategizing, and closure on a Dalek subplot. On to the recap!

“Make no attempt to capture them. They are to be exterminated. You understand? Exterminated.” – The Daleks

This episode was fantastic. We had two great action scenes, the Daleks did not act particularly stupid this time, and the plot came full circle with the re-introduction of the TARDIS’s “fluid link”. Better yet, this episode finally sees the Daleks getting scary. I suspect the challenge will be keeping up the tension as we have three episodes left in this arc, but I try to keep remembering that the original viewers did not know how many episodes were left.

Even more important to the history of the show, this episode marks the very first use of the Dalek catch-phrase, “Exterminate!” On to the recap.